seth misquotation of homer in plato

8/10/2019 Seth Misquotation of Homer in PLato

1/7

Some Misquotations of Homer in Plato

Author(s): Seth BenardeteReviewed work(s):Source: Phronesis, Vol. 8, No. 2 (1963), pp. 173-178Published by: BRILLStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4181724.

Accessed: 14/03/2012 13:45

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2/7

SomeMisquotations

f

Homer

n Plato

SETH

BENARDETE

PLATO

OFTEN HAS Socrates and

his other characters

quote Homer.

Their quotations

for the most

part exactly agree

with

our

vulgate,

but sometimes they differ.

The most recent

and careful

study

of

these

variants (La Barbe,

L'Homere de Platon)

concluded

that Plato cited from

a

text that the 'oral tradition'

had influenced.

Although La Barbe's

thesis

has been doubted,I

no

one

has

yet,

as far as

I am

aware,

accounted

for

the variants without appealing to a tradition other than ours. Here we

propose

to

show that some

of

these

misquotations

could

be

deliberate:

Plato

would have forced Homer's

lines as we know them to conform

to

the context

in which he has

placed

them.

We cannot

of

course

strictly

prove

deliberateness

on Plato's

part,

nor should it be

demanded,

for

our

'proofs'

will

depend

on

what isn't there: the absent context

of

the

Homeric

quotation.

All

we

can show

is that

the

deformed

lines when

read with the vulgate

in mind cohere more

closely

with the Platonic

context

than

they

would

do

by

themselves.

It should

not,

moreover,

strike us as strange that the privilege of

argumentum

ex silentio

which the

ancients attributed

to Homer was taken over

by

his

greatest

critic:

O

y&p

FLOVOV

T C

7ty

&k

xod

Tlc ?t

9ppVTLarV

(B

schol.

A

49;

cf.

Strabol. 2,

2

2).

Apology

28d2

(340-344).z

Socrates

compares

himself to

Achilles,

who

chose

rather

to

avenge

Patroclus' death than

to save his own

life; and

he

quotes

him

as

saying,

oc&xL -e0vXlXv,

&Lxrv eT0LZg

-T rC&XOiV-n

(u

-

uu-[-]

uu

-

), tVA

p

?vOoc

'Vo

X0

7To

wpv-uv&

xopcovLaLv

&XOoq

poup-n.

Our Homer

reads:

&

7'roC rap&

vpaGVv C76daLov

&Zx0;

ipoup-q

(

i

o4.). Socrates' suppression of

?rMatov,

if that is what it was,

can be accounted

for if we recall the

following

lines,

in

which Achilles

explained

why

he was a "vain burden of the

earth":

'06io4

Z&V

oLoq

cA

t

'AoC

X

v

ZoXxoZLLvov

eV 7MoX&,o0'

&yOpn

8&

'

tVLVoV4

LCa

LOc X?oL.

Since excellence

can

only

be shown in its

employment,

Achilles' idleness

prevents

him from

being

what he

is,

a

warrior;

but

Socrates' excellence

consists

in

speaking

in the market place

-

not of

course

in the assembly

-,

I

Cf. e.g. van der Valk'sreview,

(Mnemos.

(1952) 153-155).

2

Numbers in parenthesis after a

Platonic citation refer to the pages of La Barbe's book

where he discusses the lines in

question.

' 73


3/7

where

Achilles

admits there

are better

men than himself.

Socrates

would

not show hlis dleness in his not fighting - he nmentionshis soldierly duty

only

to dismiss

it (28dio-e4)

-

but in

his not questioning,

which

he

would

not

be

prevented

from

doing if he abstained

from

fighting.

It is

not surprising,

then, that

Socrates

wished to

distinguish

himself

from

Achilles

even when

he

was setting up

the

comparison;

for at the

end

of

his

speech,

when

he mentions

those with

whom lhe

should like

to

converse in Hades,

Achilles

is not

among

them.

Odysseus,

however,

is

there

(4oc

I).

Indeed

the &yop' of the

Achaeans is situated

by the

ships

of Odysseus

(A 8o6-8);

the

phrase

`x?Ooq

poupq

refers to

Odysseus

in its only other place in Homer

(u

376-379);

and although

E

338 (or

E

58)

would

account

for

xopcovLaLv

as a

nmetrical equivalent

of

&T7awOV,

yet

once

we

see

that

Odysseus

lurks

behind

Socrates' change, the re-

placement

proves

to

be more than mechanical.

Odysseus in urging

the

Achaeans

to stay

after

Agamemnon

has

put

them

to

flight

concedes

something

to

their

restlessness

(B

2 9

-

2

9

7):

pLzv

8'

etvoe,t6,

5TrL

rCTCEp0t7TrO(V

sV cUt7o;

evOaBE:

p.rvvrsav

ou

V

vzeL'~otL' 'zxou

&azCXXM2CV

XPO

ap auCL

XOpCXVCarV

He reminds them,

however,

of

Calchas'

prophecy

that

Troy

will

fall

in

the

tenth

year

(299-332).

That

the Achaeans should

remain

out of

trust

in

a

seer

inevitably

recalls Socrates'

reason

for

persisting

in his

practice:

the oracle

at

Delphi

obliged

him to

keep

his

station (2

8

e4-

29a4).

Thus

the

noble

but

hardly guiltless

Achilles

yields

almost

completely

to

the

prudent

Odysseus.

Cratylus

39

2

e I

(2

6 g- 2 6

8).

Socrates

infers

that

the

Trojan

men

called

Hector's

son

Astyanax

from

Homer's

saying

that

while

Hector

used

to

call him

Scamandrius

(he

says

this

when

Hector confronts Andromache),

the rest

(oc

&?CXoL)

alled

him

Astyanax

(Z

402). By

alluding

to this

passage,

he

justifies

his

conflation

of

X

5o7:

oloq

yap

apLv

spuCo

TCU?oC

oCi

-L'xg

FLOXpC

with Z

403:

oTog

yap ApUsrO

"IXLov

"Exr-jp.

This

yields:

ozoq

y&p

apyLv

pxo

7cu,Xcv

oCL

reUjxa

tocxpxC.

He

would

replace

ri)Boa

with

1To6?Lv

ot

only

to

bring

in the

"IMov

of

Z

403

but in

order

to lea(d

up

to

his identification

of

a`sru

an(d

7trXL:

Archepolis

and

Astyanax

mean the same though they share but two

letters

in

common

(394c

2).

He would

further

wish to

make

his line

a

'74


4/7

self-evident

etymological

explanation

of

Astyanax,

which it

would

not

immediately look like if it lacked the word 'city'.

Leges

706e1-707ai

(242-249).

The

Athenian

Stranger

backs

up his

claim that the

possession

of a

fleet

instills

in

hoplites

bad

habits

by

quoting

Odysseus' rebuke to Agamemnon

(E

96-102):

0x6X?Xva

F

tLOLOauvE(6Tao cL

UC

q

VO4

iuaeXso4 'aa3

E'XXeLV,Q(p

CTCL

pxXXO?v

TpXcaiL sv e)xta'

yevwrwv.r

?&X&0tevoLta-p

C`=Ut,

tv

8' oc=ln

O`Opo4

eLpps'=l oV yap 'AXaLo'

a(YxOuvv

7t0?\pL0 vTuiv

&?dX8

rxopsv&xv,

oX?

a7or7r0C-vVouav,

Cp(,6096

dE

XCP[LTh

'vocx

aZ

v

O3U?

8-?dac-

OL,

o'

&yopsu?q.

Only

two variants

are

significant:

?Ze8op.6voLt

or

the

vulgate e'TCxpa-

T0ouac,

and

oL

&yopeu$sig

for

6pZGasu

&v8pCov.

As

La

Barbe

has

seen,

Plato

wished to

remove an address which

would

be meaningless in

context, and

he

found

in the otov ?RC7tCCf

E

9gS

a

phrase

that easily

suggested it. He

might

have been influenced

as

well

by Diomedes'

rebuke

when once before

Agamemnon had

also

suggested they should

flee (I 40-41):

8chLp6vL',

VCJ0vp)ou c it?au

utao,

'AXaLv

I

N

I)

I c

a7rTO?OUC

''

CP.FvOL

oCd&vocxxLc,

(q

ayopeu,e.

The

reason behind the

replacement of

7rLxpoCa0uGLeems more subtle.

eXaoti,UvoLaL

wice occurs in a

simile, which La

Barbe

also refers to

without

realizing its significance

(H 4-7):

c,

8? OOc,

V

o0C}r-vLV

W,e8o0

o

LGLvV8oxev

OUPOV

e7re XXZ

ZOCP{CaLV

CsaT-nj

C?JT

aL

76OVTOV

XOCYvov-eq,

aCPaci

8'

67M

YuZoc

X

UVtCzL,

"

TpW1EaaLV

'CXOrL&VOLL

YXV7)TvYV.

Paris and

Hector

reappear

in

battle just

as if

a

god

had

given

a breeze

to

tired

rowers. The Stranger reminds us

of this

passage

because

he

wishes to

prepare the way for

his claim that

Marathon

and

Plataea

made

the

Greeks better while

Artemisium

and

Salamis made

them

worse

(707b4-c7).

The

barbarianTrojans as

hard-pressed

rowers

were

saved

by the

heroes Paris and

Hector, just

as

the riff-raff Greeks

of

Salamis saw their labours crowned by the hoplites of Plataea. The change,

then,

makes

Odysseus a

spokesman for the

Stranger's view

of the

Persian

War.

175


5/7

Republic

424bg

(202-206).

Socrates is

afraid est

Teleniachus'

words

to his mother will be misunderstood (a 3 1-2):

T-JV

yxp aCOL87V

LiXXG0V

C'MOZEOUGa

VOP&T0L,

el

&Ou6va

v f,y& &

X-qTL.

f

TLq

JXGVOVTF_G17 V?COT(XT

apXV.YME

They may be thought, Socrates says, to refer to a new manner of song

and

not to

songs

new

to the hearers. But as no one would so interpret

the vulgate, Socrates changes

it

to bear that meaning:

aoL(~

.n?k0 aRovtlyp

OVSGUO

XVO p&)7t(C,

Ttq

OC?l80"VTeCYC

VEWTXCTfY

UXLYMCXTou.

He

can

all

the

more

readily

deform

Homer here

because

of the previous

lines

he

does

not quote

(347-3

so):

01

VU

T

XOLOL

avrxoL,

a1Xx~k to7Oi

s'

c

OC"TLOo,

?

r

Mctv

C

tLO,

.#

,n,f

oAvp&aLv

O&C

a-~~LV

075t04

e'OCXrLV

Exa-rcp,

TOUTCO

8o

U

V4tJGL4

LavOCCOv

xxov

OTTOV

X'ev LV.

Since Socrates

has

established that the gods

are

only responsible for

good things, these

lines

would either

have to

go

or

be

revised in

the

new

regime. They

vould

have

to

assert just

the

opposite,

the

poets

and

not

Zeus

are

responsible

for novelty; and novelty

could

then only

mllean

a

poet's attempt once

more

to lay the blame

for

evil

on

Zeus.

Suchl

a

song

would

surely

make

the citizens reflect (CtL?pOVEouct).

[his

indirect expurgation

of

Homer resembles Socrates' onmission

of'

A

3

1-

-

LaToV OOLV'~v

xodL

EPOV

?Co~

&V-nav

- xv-

hen he

gives

Aga-

mennon's speech to Chryseis

in

oratio obliqua

(33

e

3-394a

i; cf.

La

Barbe contra

Bolling,

3g3-3g7),

for

any

show

of'

indecency

has

already

been excluded from

poetry,

and

Socrates

is

here

discussing only

miimesis.

Sophist

2i6aS-b6

(296-297).

This is a ratherdifferentcase from the

others.

As

Socrates quotes

the

passage

in

prose,

it

allows

him

to veave

together

at least

three different

passages

from

Homer.

It

wvill

be

neces-

sary, then,

to

quote the whole:

p'

OU'v, X

0s6'cope, oVu vov ax'k TLVO

Osv

0"Cyv

XcXTOCTOV

C0fpO?

XO6yov

xcOOa; o'S

Yp7atv

'IXxox?

T?

C6Oi

*Oq

&VOPWI0OL`

O7cOa

ILeTeZOULV

'h3oU

&(Xcdx4,

x0cd

on

xac

TOVE'VFOv

OQ,

txZLaTX

Oebv

aUVO7C8QOV

yLYV64LCVOV

U"P,eL4

T? XcaX CivoQUL'a

T(5V

&vOp0corv

x.Cop5Ev. Ta'C'

ouv

IV

xzL

aoL

TLq OUVToq

(J)v XpSLTTO-V()V

()UV67OVlO

cpoiAXou4 0

vTaCq

ev

TOtq

?Q6yoLg

?J7O+OUS'VOq

Tz

Si.L sa?Ay-Gov, Os;Oc

6v

'rL4

C?'yXn6X4

(u

-

D1

-

(V)

uu

-

-/1)

-

)

-

uu).

I76


6/7

Socrates first refers

to

Odysseus'

words

to the

Cyclops (F

270-I:

Zs 8'

Z'TZLT&p

CXETI-CV TE 4vcov

te

49LVL04 04

C4?LV0LSLV

OqL

aLOLLLoo 7tv

o0L.

Second he

refers to what

the young

suitors say to Antinous

about

the

disguised Odysseus

(p

484-487):

o0X6Fsv', eL Of ZOU

'rrt

eoupXvtoL

0Os6

ECTL.

xc'L

Z EOt LVOLaLV

eO'X60'T aXkoXa80oaL

av-rozo

T?e)ZOov-r,

-Tp&)Yp&)L

70XX4,

iVOpWtVpx

i)V

U"3pLV

TS xOCd

e:V0

LLYIV

F(pOpG)0VT4.

The

Stranger

then is

another

Odysseus; and

Odysseus

saw the

cites of

many

men and

knew

their mind,

and hence

the variety

of

customs

that

implies suggests the

variety

of

1{'3psL4

and

?t)Voptluo

he would

en-

counter.

Indeed

Odysseus

wanted

to know about

the

Phaeacians,

Cyclopes,

and

his own

countrymen whether

(

I 202

r

I

7

5,

V

2 0

1):

'

l

,,

Pa

c' ezt

4ppo-roat-

Qp0 y

X

L

OCYPLOL

U

C

8LXcLoL,

r?E

YpLX?VVOL,

XOCXL

O(pLV

VOO4

eGti.

Oeou&qi;.

It is under the influence, then, of the Stranger's resemblance to Odysseus

that Socrates

changes

v'ptv

and

euvosudnv

nto

plurals.

The

Stranger

also

appears

as

OC64

F?_XE-YXrLX6

erhaps n reminiscence of

ZeiUq

LTLCT&l)p,

though

Theodorus

insists he is much more

moderate

(2I6

b

7-8).

EJCOJO'V?vol

-

Eustathius

paraphrases

'7rLTLP'r&(0p

ith

7r67Ttq

xC

fo-0O64

(I629,9)

-

shows that

xmOopiv was not

dictated

by

a

variant in

Plato's

Homer, but

was chosen

for other

reasons.

Theodorus

goes

on

to

deny

that the

Stranger

is a

god

but

he calls

him

like

all

philosophers

divine;

whereupon

Socrates remarks

that

philosophers

are hardly easier

to

distinguish than gods: 7tckvu

xp

&vapeq

UTO)L

avT

XrXZo rLct

oLEoL 86&

T


7/7

Symposium 22oC2

(228-230).

r

z}

-v

3

t

7u

'

a,

r4~

z at

eir7 XCPeP,

oiy,

t.ov

8'

av

TOO' ?pEt

xcd

?X xoCpT?pO6 &vnp.

Alcibiades quotes the line

as a

transition between

his

description of the

barefoot

and

himation-clad

Socrates at Potidaea

during

winter and

Socrates' standing still

there

while

thinking

one

sunmmer

day

and

nighlt.

The

line

occurs,

each

slightly

different,

in

the

mouth of

Helen

an(d

Menelaus (8

242,

27 i). Helen

introduces her story with &kX?'tovr68'

xrX

and

Menelaus his

with orov xoci to8'

-XT. Alcibiades'

use of it

between

his two stories seems

to

explain, as others

have

said,

his

(leparture

froml

either line; but much more is involved. Its difference fronmboth their

lines (as

well as its

borrowing

her

'X&

and his

xa.L

or his own 8'

av) calls

attention to the stories each tells about Odysseus. Helen tells

about the

disguised Odysseus in Troy, how quite

different

from the

way he lookedl

among the Achaeans he had dressed

himself in

rags like

a

beggar, clothed

one might say

as

Socrates usually was;

and

Menelaus

tells how

when

Helen spoke to

those insi(de the horse, Odysseus checke(dDiomlecdes

ndi

himself from rushing out,

and

when Anticlus

wished

to answer

Helen,

,,Odysseus stopped up

his mouth

with

his

strong

hands

continually"

until

Helen went away. Odysseus, completely unmoved by Helen's voice,

showed as much persistence

in

keeping

the others

quiet

as

Socrates

(lid

in

standing still. Just

as

Alcibiades' examples

are meant to illustrate

Socrates' xuprep'oc

and

yppOvl4a,

the like

of

which he

says

he would

never have believed

to find in

anyone

(2I9d5-7;

cf.

221 C2 with

8

240-I),

so

Helen and

Menelaus

present Odysseus

in the same

light,

for

as

Menelaus says

in

introducing

his

story (267-2 70):

S8r ,rv

7ro?Xev

C&tv

r3oU X?v T

v4Gv

.

&vapxv

'pV,

7toXXv

8'

e'?rEXuOX

yoCXev

a'

ou

wT&

ToLoUTov

yv

`8ov

yo(pOktoXacv

otov

'O8uaaivoq

-traXxaC

ypovoP

4

ei

p?v X p.

Brandeis University

178

seth misquotation of homer in plato

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